In old Scots, ‘guddling’ is a term used to describe attempts to catch fish with your bare hands.
But for Tayport small business entrepreneur Dawn Mullan, her new business ‘Guddle Box’ represents the seizing of an opportunity to reinvent herself after being made redundant in 2012.
Raised in Tayport, Dawn, now 43, whose maiden name was Ritchie, went to Tayport Primary and Madras College in St Andrews.
She studied town and regional planning at Duncan of Jordanstone College of Art in Dundee.
She then moved to Edinburgh for eight years where she worked in marketing for a number of investment companies including Aegon and Scottish Widows.
She moved back to work as marketing and communications manager at Alliance Trust in Dundee.
But after being made redundant by Alliance Trust in 2012 and becoming disillusioned with commuting to Edinburgh on a number of short term contracts, she decided she wanted to “do something different” by turning her long-standing arts and craft hobby into a business.
“I was inspired by the seashore I knew and loved along the north Fife coast,”she says.
“I’d always picked up little bits of sea pottery and stones from the beaches at Tayport, Newport and St Andrews, and wanted to do something with this hobby, although my creations are not beachy-themed.”
Dawn started “testing the water” with Guddle Box in July 2014 and said the feedback and contacts she had made over the past year had been “absolutely amazing”.
She began experimenting. Her early creations included presentation of driftwood and stone found on the beach into bird shapes. She has also made ‘washing lines’ out of sea pottery.
She adds: “I pick up things and say ‘what can I do with this?’. I simplify my designs.”
She attended her first craft fair last December, selling creations ranging from around £8 to £25, and has been at a number since, with many organised through Dundee-based Janet Webster of Carnaby Markets.
Despite studying town and regional planning at art college, she had always enjoyed the creative atmosphere and loved the drawing side. In fact in many ways her life has gone full circle as, whilst studying Higher Art at Madras College, she did her dissertation on a seashore theme.
She adds: “I’ve always been intrigued by where sea pottery comes from and who used to use them. I pick the pieces up and clean them. My auntie lives in Tay Street in Newport and for some reason I get a lot of pottery on the shore down there. At Tayport it’s more stones and glass. Some of the things I find have different letterings and wordings on them. I love it, and the people buying it love it.”
Dawn has been selling at craft fairs in the Dundee and St Andrews areas and says her customers enjoy the fact the materials are “from their doorsteps” within a 20-mile radius.
With the Ritchies well known for generations in the Tayport area, it’s a family affair when it comes to collecting materials from the shore with mum Irene, dad Alex, husband Paul and five-year-old niece Ruby often helping out.
She also works in a voluntary capacity at a social enterprise community caf in Tayport and is involved in the arts and craft side of developing a community hub project in Tayport.
She adds: “I currently work from a spare room at my house. Although it’s my dream to have a workshop of my own. It’s so different to what I was doing before. I’m loving it!”
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